With Chelsea stepping up their efforts to sign a new striker in the new year this was the timeliest reminder of what Fernando Torres can do. At long last.

Four goals in two appearances in four days is an impressive return although it is a moot point as to which team he faced were worse: Danish champions FC Nordsjaelland in the Champions League or the ragbag of Sunderland who dropped into the bottom three with this defeat.

Martin O’Neill’s men were subjected to a Spanish inquisition. Two goals from Torres and another from Juan Mata resulted in a first Premier League victory, at the fourth attempt, for interim manager Rafael Benítez. Who knows, he may even outlast O’Neill.

The Sunderland manager will cling to the effort his players put in but they are desperately short of belief, quality and without the injured Steven Fletcher, a cutting edge. They flickered into life only when they fell behind.

At the Stadium of Light their deficiencies were illuminated – although Adam Johnson, at least, had his best game since joining Sunderland for £10 million in the summer.

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Tuesday’s meeting with Reading is now a hugely significant fixture. Failure to win that and it will be an undeniable crisis, underlined in neon.

“It’s a really tough fight,” O’Neill said. “We got some fantastic results last season and it seemed by mid-February we had calmly taken ourselves out of relegation problems. I never saw it like that, every game was a fight and it’s like that now for us. We will fight our way out of it and we’ve got enough talent and enough self-belief.”

Benítez also spoke of belief. “If the team plays well and creates chances then Fernando will score goals,” he said, claiming that “confidence” is returning both individually and collectively. “You can see players with more confidence and they know what to do. Fernando is one of those players. Little by little we are adjusting things and we have more confidence we will win more games.”

Torres even took — and scored — a penalty. Remarkably it was his first ever in the Premier League and the sight of him wanting to take the ball and beat the keeper was another indicator, according to Benítez, that he is rediscovering his mojo. “The positive thing is he wanted to take it,” he said.

For Chelsea there was the boon of not just Torres’s goals but, as they flew out to Japan last night for the Club World Cup, the return of Frank Lampard after his six-week injury absence. However, yesterday Oriol Romeu was sidelined with a damaged knee.

How things changed in Lampard’s absence as Chelsea endured their worst league run for 18 years. This was their first win in eight. Even the venom towards Benítez subsided a little yesterday. There were chants for Roberto Di Matteo and a new one from the travelling Chelsea fans. “We don’t care about Rafa, we don’t care about us. All we care about is Chelsea FC,” they repeatedly sang.

“In this column I’m not going to dwell on the football. We all know we should be higher up the table,” Sunderland owner Ellis Short wrote in his programme notes, sounding an ominously defeatist note before his club were indeed defeated. They have lost 15 of their last 16 meetings with Chelsea. Maybe those Chelsea fans should be singing “can we play you every week”.

Torres would concur. But then not all Premier League defences rely on as lumbering a pair as John O’Shea and Carlos Cuéllar, who set the tone for the defensive chaos that ensued as early as the sixth minute when the former’s header cannoned off the latter, only for the rebound to land straight at Torres’s feet. Clear on goal he tried to go around Simon Mignolet but was dispossessed.

Another opportunity wasted by Torres. But then he scored a fine goal. Chelsea broke rapidly with Torres outmuscling Cuéllar before Victor Moses found Eden Hazard down the left. He cut inside and picked out Torres who stole in at the near post to steer his volley past Mignolet. It was over in a blue blur.

Sunderland finally gathered a head of steam and Petr Cech had to push out Stephane Sessegnon’s shot from distance but, on the stroke of half-time, Chelsea added a second. Ramires burst into the area but was running out of pitch — only for Sebastian Larsson to launch himself, needlessly, at the midfielder, bringing him down.

Hazard had missed a penalty in midweek, David Luiz had scored one but this time Torres stepped up and coolly sidefooted home his second goal.

He also had a significant role in Chelsea’s third, which owed more to defensive disorganisation with Phil Bardsley making a hash of clearing Moses’s cross. Torres’s snapshot was powerful, it rattled the bar and the rebound dropped to Mata who easily beat Mignolet with a low shot.

Despite the brio of Chelsea’s attacking play, they remained flaky in defence. Sunderland sensed this and the ball was ferried out wide to Johnson. His cross-shot was misjudged by Cech, who pulled his hands away, only for the ball to end up in the net.

Chelsea were then indebted to Cech for sharp saves – pushing away Johnson’s free-kick as it arrowed towards the top corner and then turning Connor Wickham’s low shot away.

In injury-time another free-kick, this time from Craig Gardner, struck the crossbar with the goalkeeper beaten. A goal then would have distorted the scoreline.